Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-05-29

of facts no stronger than they are. Emo
tions as product of heart and mind ar.
usually good at least born o.
good intentions, but are too often mos
illogical and uhsafe guides, defeating the
very ends meant to be subserved.
The ethics and logic of liberty and rights
as well of civil government are moi
so easily outlined and defined
as is at first supposed. Our highest liberty
is not to do as we please, nor is the most
perfect freedom without any restraint.
The Declaration of Independence recites
three rights which it denominates in.
alienable, namely, life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. That these rights
are absolutely inalienable, in the current
sense of the word, is not true We enjoy
no rights which We may not forfeit, In
the state of nature only have we absolute
rights. So soon as we enter society as
such, or as organized government, our
rights cease to be absolute and become
conditional and relative Then we have a
right to life, liberty &C., only on con-
dition that our behavior conforms to certain
rules of conduct prescribed by the society
or government of which we are member.
This principle if carried out
applies to the rights and
privileges of the sees, as in the question of
female suffrage, as well as to mankind
generally considered.
However illogical and paradoxical it may
at first appear, it is none the less true that
the foundation Of law is primarily not in
telligence, but obligation. And when
Senator ingalls, says. 1.-The stability of gov
eminent does not depend on the consent of
the governed" he utters truth in beauti-
full consonance not only with law and
logic, but with the great masters of these,
and in full harmony with the most perfect
jurisprudence Of the age.
In the development of law the general
cons ciousness rules as kind of intuition.
Plato took this position; but he also be-
lieved in the pre- existence of souls, and &C
counted for intuition On the principle of
Renaissance. Though he believed that
man is always what his will
is, yet he scOrned the doctrine later advoca-
ted by Hobbies that man is a fighting
animal, that each mans will is antagon-
istic to all other wills, bringing it into the
power of the state to restrain the individual
wills, and, in short, that might makes
right" If these two principles advocated
by the best of men for many centuries be
true, namely, that the foundation of law is
primarily obligation, and that In its devel-
opment the general consciousness rules as a
kind of intuition, then must it follow as
logical corallary that the stability Of
government does not depend on the consent
of the governed?" And as a few men do
the thinking for the world and the rest
follow, go few catch the spirit Of inspira-
ton and become lawyers as Scion and
Lycurgus, not so much because they
are wiser and study more than others,
but because they catch the
spirit Of inspiration to get the right. The
manifestations of right come in the form Of
historical movements. The idea grounds
itself first in customs and habits, and this
gradually takes the form of law. Black
stone teaches that all law has its origin in
custom or habit which come from the idea
of right Others hold tfat it comes from
the rudimentary unfolding of society
However this may be, it is agreed on all
hands that laws do no come into existence
abruptly or theoretically, but practically and
historically. Sex non scripta does not SO
much refer to the fact that it is unwritten
as to its origin, evidencing thereby that law
grows out of customs and maxims in which
right is embodied and expressed.
Statute laws only become q necessity
because right developes itself historic
ally as q movement, and because
mans outward circumstances are continual
new applications of right with these his
torical changes. Hence the necessity Of
making laws anew. and therefore the OBJ
viousness of the fact that men can not
legislate as they please, since statute law
must be not merely theoretical, but it must
be historically right and true If it is not
it will be dead letter Many laws are
passed which cannot be enforced, nor
would 1t be well if they were. There are
many wrongs which can not be right by
legislation, and many evils which even the
blood stained code of Scion could not pro-
hibit.
1t is wrong per Sc to forbid all kinds of
wrong. If man does right only because
h is compelled to, he is not a man, nor
does he develope that character which
leads to manhood The Puri-
taps by forbidding whistling on
Sun day, and making attendance at church
com pulsory, suppressed the development
of character, for character can only devel-
op properly when there is freedom OF will.
You can say of man, He can't steal.
In the midst of the freedom of viii he has
built up so sturdy structure Of character
that there is established law within him.
That necessitates conformity TO moral prin
ciples. If this principle is correct from a
and ethical standpoint, is
there not room 10 doubt whether prohibi-